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Rakiscen
World of Rakiscen: Rakiscen (or "Gate Place", sometimes referred to by the "Gate Races") is a large world of various climates, locations and races. Several continents are spread across the world, with hundreds of smaller islands dotting around the coast-lines and out at sea. There are many intelligent races that make up the world and more land is still being discovered as the years go by. The technology of the world is set roughly into the high-medieval phase, compared to modern-day Earth, with gunpowder common place but with iron and steel still a solid foundation of the various nations across the world. Magic and the relatively higher-level of steam-punk technology go hand-in-hand (usually) in most places of the world, creating a place rich in prosperity and insight (or poverty and ignorance). While the old continents of the world are inhabited by a great degree of races, forming a collective union of civilization, there are many places out in the world that have yet to be explored and provide adventures and general mayhem whenever the great unknown is investigated (especially when it comes to deciding who gets to colonize what land) Although the exact year of the start of civilization is relatively unknown, and every attempt to find out has resulted in inconsistencies with various events that have taken place at some time, the current year that has been decided on by various nations (though not all of them) marks the year as 433 Monolith Time. The Monolith: Of all the wondrous locations and sights of the land, the Monolith is definitely the most widely known and talked about of the entire world. Consisting of a large, granite arch jutting out of the ground, the Monolith is the virtual, and somewhat literal, sole reason of every event that has taken place on Rakiscen. No-one is sure who built the Monolith, or what its purpose is or even if it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, but this simple archway holds a power beyond imagining. Wars have been fought over it and, even though thousands of years have passed, there has been absolutely no real insight on the workings of the thing, nor is there any indication that the mystery is going to be solved anytime soon. Every year or so, this archway starts pulsating some sort of mystical energy that is absolutely lethal to anyone unlucky enough to be near it at the time. There are multiple theories about why it does this at seemingly random intervals, but what the results of this magical light up is what makes the Monolith the fearful and mighty power that it is. After several minutes of a pretty good looking light show has passed, the archway emits a bright light and then completely fades out, like nothing had ever happened. The one thing that is different, though, is the creature that was suddenly spewed out from the Monolith, usually lying unconscious at its base. Whatever the real purpose of the Monolith is, whenever it decides to activate, it seems to grab a random creature from a faraway land (just how far away these creatures come from is debated) and then dump them in Rakiscen right there and then, with seemingly no apparent reason. The culture and history of Rakiscen is generally based on this anomaly, which many nations waiting eagerly (or fearfully) on what creature the Monolith is going to throw at them yet. While most of these "Gate Races", as they are usually called, die out within a short time due to various reasons, some become lasting members of Rakiscen history and lore, some even managing to reproduce through various (and sometimes disturbing) ways. The "Monolith Time" mentioned above was drawn up when various nations got together and drew up an official form of standards and regulations when dealing with the Monolith, as wars were fairly commonplace over the thing. As the year now states, it has been 433 years since the "Monolith Standard and Regulation Pact" was signed. Any time before this pact that took place is now referred to as "Aging Time" (basically, it's just another version of the B.C-A.D thing). It is still debated whether or not the Monolith is using magical means to achieve what it's capable of or if it was built by a technologically superior race long ago, or if it's a hybrid of both. 'Races:' There are many races of Rakiscen, though only two of them are populous enough to be seen absolutely everywhere. The exact number of intelligent races is unknown, and since there are other continents that have not been explored, it is likely that there are some more out there that remain unseen. While there are some civilizations and groups that hold equality rights for every race, regardless of how frequently they are seen or how "useful" they are, the majority of the nations of the world has a particular race that holds dominance over others. This dominance is sometimes more obvious in some nations then in others. There are very few nations that are controlled specifically by the non-dominant races, and even then their chosen race doesn't usually have a majority over the two dominant ones in terms of population. Wol-hoven: The wol-hoven is one of the dominant races of Rakiscen. Wol-hovens are a canine race that make up the majority of dominance in the world and can be seen in almost in any civilized area. From the perspective of a human, wol-hovens resemble upright wolves and sport very similar behavior and "culture" that a wolf would do back on Earth. Wol-hovens are probably the only true "native" of the world of Rakiscen (if the rumors about the other dominant race, the snareths, are to be believed) and have a long history to show for it. The wol-hoven typically holds the most nations under their racial control and are typically steered towards a highly scientific and cultural way of life. The way of industrialization of modernizing the average person's life is something that the wol-hoven race, as a whole, seems to be constantly trying to achieve. While they are known to be calm and compliant to others, their history is plagued with racial tensions and there is a definite air of tension between them and other races, including their partner-in-dominance, the snareths. This is due to slavery being a common practice in the past, the snareths being a victim at some stage of their history. Wol-hovens, while carnivores, do find it possible to get their daily intake of protein through other means (such as nuts) though this diet isn't really popular with the majority. The average wol-hoven lives to about 70 years of age and are, as a whole, seen as having an above average intelligence compared to other races. Their culture is typically associated with technology, magic being something they find hard to grasp the "logic" of. Snareth: The snareth is the second dominant race of Rakiscen. Snareths are a reptilian race that roughly resembles a sleeker, taller version of the "lizard men" from Earth lore (meaning D&D). Snareths are regarded as one of the "stranger" of races, mostly due to their absurd behavior compared to their wol-hovens. Snareths are a very hard-working and reliable race with a strong collective "ant-like" mentality of culture and lifestyle. While they can be seen just as frequently as wol-hovens are, they are still relatively hard to make out and are generally anti-social towards other races, usually because they lack the facial nerve structure to make facial expressions as effectively as other races do. Snareths are strongly focused in using magic in their lives and find technology too confusing for their tastes. Religion is a very heavy value in snareth culture and they show for it, with shamanistic practices and ritualistic communions commonplace in many communities. While snareths actually number slightly more than the wol-hovens they share their dominance with, politically, they only have a few places to truly call their own and their only real place they call home would be the vast, underground tunnels and nests they usually build, either in the wilderness or sometimes below actual cities (much to the annoyance of the surface dwellers). Snareths, like wol-hovens, are strictly carnivores, but cannot substitute any other kinds of foods to get the protein they need. They are also built for killing, with sharp claws, poisonous fangs and flexible, barbed tail a few examples of how they can kill you without weapons. The strangest thing about snareths, though, is that they never seem to age. They grow old, certainly, but there seems to be no record of any snareth dying of old age. The top record for longest living snareth is currently 423 years, and there seems to be a new replacement for the record coming up. Even though this "trait" generally receives jealousy from the other races, snareths usually point out that "This sort of life means that it will always end violently". Gate Races: 'There are many creatures that have been spewed out by the Monolith as time wore on, though no-one knows how long the Monolith has been doing its apparent job for. The most popular theory is that it's responsible for the creation of this world and is simply adding more and more peices to it until it achieves perfection, whatever "perfection" would mean in this context. In any case, there have been thousands and thousands of various races that have been brought to Rakiscen, though only a few have been able to survive past the first week and even fewer have been able to reporduce since then. Here is a list of some of the more "popular" minorities of these races that have managed to survive. To give an idea of how few these various races number; adding up the entire lot of the minority races will only get to about 20% of the population of the known world. Most of these races have no known year of discovery. 'Humans: Turned up roughly between 30,000-25,000 A.T. Humans are humans, of course. Generally seen as quick witted and of above average intelligence of most of the other Gate Races that have appeared. They were another race that was generally enslaved by the wol-hovens at their first appearance until the formation of civilization proper. Early history text suggests that they were bred and used as food. They tend to get inexplicably sick and die roughly at the age of 50, apparently by poisoning. Scientists believe that the atmosphere may contain chemicals toxic to them that slowly build up in their system over the years. this same toxin is apparently what made them "delicious" to their wol-hoven slavers. 'Lerren-Akka: '''Appeared between 30,000-20,000 A.T. Resembling humans in height, build and structure, they possesed what looked like gaint butterfly wings (which turn out to not be for flying but for socializing through creating odd noises with), along with a slight chitinous skin with completely black eyes and no hair. While definitly odd to look at, they are probably the most intelligent and influencial minority races to live in Rakiscen. Their intelligence and determination led them to convince the wol-hovens (which had enslaved them) to start casting aside their tyranical ways and start looking upon the Monolith as a way of the future, rather then something to gain slaves from. They also had a strong hand in the creation of the Monolith Standards and Regulations Pact. 'Cloud-Gazer: '''Appeared between 18,000-10,000 A.T. No-one is exactly sure what the cloud-gazers are supposed to be. Appearance wise, they look like blue stingrays, somehow managing to fly in the air despite its "wings" looking more suited to swimming then anything else. They crowd together and fly from place to place, doing almost the exact same things that birds usually do. While the additional fact that they apparently don't speak (at least not on a level that the other races would hear) would class them under the term "animal" they are almost certianly intelligent enough to be considered a Gate Race. A particular group of cloud-gazers can use fishing nets because they most likely spotted someone else using them and learned from that. There have even been "wars" between certian groups of cloud-gazers and the surface races, with the cloud-gazers clearly showing the intelligence to know how to wage effective warfare with them (such as setting fire to their buildings) and even show signs of knowing when "peace" has occured. There is still general indifference and debating about what to do with them.